Approved. I’m not sure this is the best thing actually, but we can repeal or modify it if it doesn’t work. Right now, there’s no penalty if a claim is denied wrongfully. The insurer just pays the claim. Meanwhile the patient is out all the time and expense to force the insurer to pay.

Senate Joint Resolution 8206: 1% rainy day fund

Rejected. I’m in favor of a rainy day fund. I’m not in favor of it being mandated by the state constitution. I’m also not in favor of the kinds of restrictions on it’s use. And since it’s a constitutional amendment, if it doesn’t work as planned it can’t be repealed by the legislature.

Approved. This eliminates super-majority voting requirements for school levies. Right now not only does a levy require a super-majority, but you have to have beat turnout from previous elections. As I noted above, regular functioning of the government shouldn’t be by super-majority. Now, if we could get this to be applied to all levies.

Approved. Not that it will necessarily make the universities a lot of money. I think adequate safeguards against gambling can be written by law or regulation. It’s not necessary to tie the hands via the constitution as currently written.

King County Initiative 25: electing the director of elections

No. This doesn’t make the director of elections elected. This merely puts another item on the ballot next year to make the director of elections an elected position. I’m generally in favor of manager positions like this being appointed. It allows such things as an executive search with multiple candidates.

Scott Noble. He’s the incumbent, and I haven’t heard of him. That’s what you want in an incumbent assessor.

King County Council District No. 4

No vote. I don’t vote when someone is running unopposed, unless I’m putting in a write-in for some reason.

Port of Seattle Commissioner Position No. 2

Gael Tarleton.

Port of Seattle Commissioner Position No. 5

Alec Fisken.

Sound Transit and RTID Proposition No. 1

No. I’m torn here. Ultimately though, I think there’s too much emphasis on roads in the package. If that money was spent to repair roads rather than build new ones, perhaps. Also, I’m not a big fan of extending light rail into rural areas since I think that encourages sprawl. It ought to be spread through existing urban locations to encourage even greater density. Places like Ballard, West Seattle, or an I-5 route. Even Bellevue. But not I-90 generally.

Seattle City Council Position No. 1

Jean Godden. She’s turned out to be a decent councilperson.

Seattle City Council Position No. 5

No vote. Tom Rasmussen is unopposed.

Seattle City Council Position No. 3

Venus Velázquez. Don’t know much about either candidate. I like Peter Steinbrueck (the outgoing councilperson) and he’s endorsed Velázquez.

Seattle City Council Position No. 7

Tim Burgess. Burgess is somewhat of an opportunist, disavowing some of his previous work with right-wing causes now that the wind is blowing liberal again. I’ve met him and he’s pretty smart. And really, the opportunity to do a lot of right-wing damage (should he turn out to be a stalking horse) is pretty limited as a councilperson. Meanwhile he’ll be the type that gets into the nitty-gritty of city business.

Seattle City Council Position No. 9

Sally Clark. Haven’t really seen a lot out of Clark, but Fenton is a right-wing gadfly who is running on public morals and says little about day to day things.

Seattle Charter Amendment 17: adds a preamble to the city charter

I don’t care.

Seattle Charter Amendment 18: the mayor’s state of the city address

Yes. This is mostly a pissing match between Mayor Nickels and the City Council. He did his state of the city address to some other group and they got peeved that the official audience (them) didn’t get it in person. I don’t care that much, but it probably should be given to the council at least.